Vice
President Hubert Humphrey, President Lyndon Johnson and General
Creighton Abrams in a Cabinet Room meeting on March 27, 1968. (Photo
credit: National Archive)

In 1968, Sam Brown, like many of his youthful contemporaries, was
disgusted by the Vietnam War which had already claimed more than 30,000
American lives and killed countless Vietnamese. So, he poured his energy
into Eugene McCarthy's anti-war campaign for the Democratic nomination,
serving as McCarthy's Youth Coordinator.

Then, after McCarthy lost to Hubert Humphrey at the tumultuous
Chicago convention, the 25-year-old Brown faced a tough choice: whether
to sit out the general election in protest of Humphrey's support for
President Lyndon Johnson's war policies or accept Humphrey as superior
to his Republican rival, Richard Nixon.

- Advertisement -

I contacted Brown about that old dilemma in the context of my recent
reporting about Johnson's desperate bid to negotiate an end to the
Vietnam War in 1968 and the now-declassified evidence that Nixon's
campaign sabotaged those efforts through back-channel contacts,
encouraging the South Vietnamese government to boycott Johnson's peace
talks.

Of course, in 1968, Brown was unaware of what Johnson privately
called Nixon's "treason," in part, because Johnson chose to keep the
evidence secret, rather than risk releasing it before the election only
to have Nixon still win and start off with a deeply marred presidency.

Brown's 1968 dilemma also has recurred periodically for Democrats as
some on the Left prefer to cast votes for third parties or simply not
vote to protest some shortcoming of the Democratic nominee -- even if the
Republican alternative is likely to pursue more warlike policies and
roll back programs aimed at helping the poor and the middle class.

- Advertisement -

In 1980, many on the Left abandoned Jimmy Carter because of his
tacking to the political center, thus clearing the way for Ronald
Reagan. In 2000, nearly three million voters cast ballots for Ralph
Nader (who dubbed Al Gore "Tweedle-Dum" to George W. Bush's
"Tweedle-Dee"), thus helping Bush get close enough in Florida to steal
the White House (with further help from five Republican partisans on the
U.S. Supreme Court). Today, some on the Left are turning their backs on
Barack Obama because he has disappointed them on health-care reform,
the Afghan War and other policies.

It seems that on the Left -- even more than on the Right -- there is
this quadrennial debate over whether one should withhold support from
the Democratic nominee out of a sense of moral purity or hold one's nose
and accept the "lesser evil," i.e., the major-party candidate who will
inflict the least damage on Americans and the world.

Yet, as intensely as some on the Left disdain President Obama's
actions and inaction today, the cause for anger in 1968 was much
greater. After running as the "peace" candidate in 1964, President
Johnson had sharply escalated the U.S. involvement in Vietnam with Vice
President Humphrey loyally at his side.

Then, in 1968, the bloody Tet offensive shattered U.S. assurances of
impending victory; Johnson confronted a surprisingly strong challenge
from Sen. Eugene McCarthy and decided not to seek reelection; Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy entered the race, but was assassinated (as was civil
rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.); and the Democratic convention in
Chicago descended into chaos as police clashed with anti-war protesters
on the streets.

Appeal to the McCarthy Youth

It was in that maelstrom of tragedy and anger that Sam Brown, like
other McCarthy (and Kennedy) supporters had to decide whether to line up
behind Humphrey, who was admired for his support for social and
economic justice (even if he was condemned for his loyalty to Johnson),
or to stay on the sidelines (and risk Nixon's victory).

- Advertisement -

In a recent interview, Brown told me that he was on the fence about
which way to go, saying his decision depended on Humphrey making a clean
break with Johnson on the war. There was a widely held view at the time
that Johnson was so psychologically "owned by the war" -- and his
responsibility for the terrible bloodshed -- that he couldn't take the
necessary steps to make peace, Brown said.

Humphrey did not want to betray Johnson but understood that his
campaign depended on his reuniting the shattered Democratic Party. So,
Humphrey sent emissaries to approach Brown and other anti-war activists.

"The campaign in a formal way reached out to those who had supported
McCarthy," Brown recalled. The campaign's emissary to about a dozen
activists was Vermont Gov. Philip Hoff, who had "cred" because he was an
early opponent of the Vietnam War, Brown said.

But Hoff faced a hard sell. "We were so bitter about Johnson that we
weren't going to listen to Humphrey," Brown said about himself and some
of the other activists. "It can't be just, 'he's a good guy, trust us.'
You had to give us something to believe in. ... There needed to be some
lifeline thrown."

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq, can be ordered at secrecyandprivilege.com. It's also available at
(more...)